Ni­a­gara doc­tor en­ters into peace bond

A Ni­a­gara Falls physi­cian has been banned from at­tend­ing dog parks for the next 12 months fol­low­ing a 2017 in­ci­dent where two dogs and a woman were sprayed by dog re­pel­lent at Fire­men’s Park.

Dr. Kevin Smith ap­peared in an On­tario Court of Jus­tice in St. Catharines on Fri­day and agreed to en­ter into a one-year peace bond with sev­eral con­di­tions, in­clud­ing that he stay away from dog parks and not pos­sess any weapons.

Af­ter the 67-year-old der­ma­tol­o­gist en­tered into the bond, all crim­i­nal charges, in­clud­ing as­sault with a weapon, were with­drawn against him.

On Nov. 22, 2017, court was told, Smith was walk­ing through Fire­men’s Park when he was ap­proached by two large un­leashed dogs.

While the Dorch­ester Road prop­erty does have two dog parks, dogs must be leashed un­til they en­ter the fenced-in com­pounds.

As­sis­tant Crown at­tor­ney Grace Pang told Judge Peter Wilkie the de­fen­dant was “ag­i­tated” by the ap­proach­ing dogs and sprayed both of them in the face with dog re­pel­lent.

When one of the own­ers con­fronted Smith, court was told, she was also sprayed in the face.

The 34-year-old woman was treated at a lo­cal hos­pi­tal and re­leased. The dogs were treated by a vet­eri­nar­ian and both sus­tained hair loss.

Court was told Smith also made a $1,500 do­na­tion to a lo­cal an­i­mal res­cue so­ci­ety.